About Me

When not nosing, tasting, drinking and reading about malt whisky, I own one of Israel's premiere boutique coaching practices, specializing in small businesses and executive teams.
Trained in the law, I was an international law attorney and took part in Israel's peace negotiations with the Palestinians, as well as representing my country at the UN for parts of the negotiations on the implementation of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Later I was appointed to the military bench.
My favorite thing, other than whisky, is teaching.
You can contact me through the social media buttons above or by email: michael(at)maltandoak.com, replacing the (at) with an @.

Statement of Integrity and Guidelines

Malt and Oak is an independent whisky blog, offering my own views, opinions and news from the world of malt whisky.
These are my guidelines:

1. All whisky reviews published are of whiskies I have personally tasted and noted. Guest bloggers only write about their own personal tastings.

2. With the exception of official whisky samples, I accept no consideration whatsoever from any distillery, bottler, distributor, drink company or store for my opinions.

3. I maintain strict impartiality and objectivity in tasting all whiskies, not least when tasting official samples. Any review of official whisky samples sent to me will be so noted in the post.

4. I will accept invitations to tastings, events and official visits, and full disclosure will be made on any tasting notes and articles resulting from these events or visits.

5. Any sample received over 30 ml in volume is shared with fellow whisky bloggers. In any event, no sample larger than 100 ml will be accepted.

6. No advertisements promoting specific brands will be accepted.

7. I will answer any inquiry by my readers as quickly and as fully as possible.

8. Should I give a link purchase the reviewed whisky, it will be given free of any commercial interest. The link given will always point to cheapest selling price I found on the web. No commission is paid, nor any other consideration given, for such link.

9. As of July 2017, I serve as Douglas Laing’s Israel brand ambassasdor. As such, I will obviously not be posting reviews of Douglas Laing products.

To Reach the Skye – The Sublime Talisker 30

After yesterday’s post on the Talisker 25, which caused quite an emotional stir (most of which was of readers mentioning a similar experience with the 25, but not only), we come to the final stop in the Talisker series – The venerated 30 year old, and the top of the core range. We’re talking about a whisky which is released in batches of 3000 or so, basically on a yearly basis, but I guess batches are made according to demand, and I don’t think there was a release in 2014. Here too, you can use the number of bottles to discern which batch it is using whiskybase.com‘s database.

Photo Credit: thehighlanderspoems.com

Originally, both the 25 and the 30 year old Taliskers were part of Diageo’s annual Special Releases series, and at that point they were released at cask strength. Both were taken off “special release” status in 2011 and reduced to 45.8% ABV, now part of the core range of the distillery.

This bottle, by the way, is a perfect illustration of the power of whisky clubs. To augment our MMI Whisky Club‘s Talisker evening, Tomer Goren arranged to bring the 30 year old as an ending to the IBBL Spirits presentation of the Storm, 10, Distiller’s Edition, 18 and 25. This is a bottle that you would probably not buy on your own just to taste, but tasting it becomes very feasible in a club.

This expression is everything you’d hope for in a 30 year old. Complex and layered, delicate yet very much alive, this is a fabulous dram.

Photo Credit: passievoorwhisky.nl

Talisker 30 Year Old (2013 – Batch of 3738 Bottles), (45.8% ABV)

Appearance: Copper, slow and rather thick legs.

Nose: Delicate and gentle with honey and wood spices (cinnamon, clove and allspice), oranges, light and subdued peat (like a peat fire from afar), a musty note. Faint salt, which gets stronger as time goes on in the glass, and honeysuckle flowers. Smoked meat appears on the nose after leaving glass covered for a while and coming back to it.

Palate: Here’s the peat! This is old peat with notes of citrus, honey, Talisker’s signature pepperiness comes through with some clove and a certain freshness, defying the three decade slumber in oak.

Linger: Very long. Light peat lodges in the back of the throat. Orange, pepper and cardamom take residence on the tongue with a lovely light bitterness. Smoke and salt come out after the sweetness dissipates. This is a very complex and layered finish, with an overall lightly mouth drying effect.

Conclusion

WOW, this is really almost all I could ask for in a 30 year old.

Why “almost” you ask? I can just imaging what this would be like at cask strength.